Month: March 2018

Sunsets are like a great end to a book! The beauty of the sunset lives in that we get another if blessed to breathe the next day, and the next, and the next. I remember sunsets. We were blessed to live on a hill growing up and beside another one where the sunsets were the highlight of the day on the other side of the highway. Now, I am blessed to live by a small pond called a lake, and the colors are mirrored from the sky in the water. Purples, deep blues, fire-red in tornado season, and variations of pink are my all time favorite shades.

Sunsets point to completion. We don’t want it to happen but it must. An ending to the beginning. No two are alike…exactly. The clocks are set to it. The children come in for dinner by it. The days plowing comes to an end unless you have bright headlights. The babies give up to sleep and exhaustion creeps toward the blue-collar worker. Dogs bark. Grandparents lock the doors at its end.

Sunsets remind us to reflect. What was lost? What was gained? Were we true to the projects. Did we begin? Did it matter? Are we hungry? Overwhelmed? Peaceful? Hopeful? Who do we miss? Who was there?

Sunsets equate to an exhale for the day. Breathe in like the sunrise and breathe out like the sunset. There can be such wonderful long pauses after the exhale. In meditation it is the space of reflection. So much grace in the sunset, so much emotion, and so much energy released. We can not hoard it or borrow it or replay. If it is taken for granted then it is our own personal loss. I have felt that when working late and inside then to exit to the darkness leaves an emptiness. Those days are sad to me. Too much consumption of personal time. Nothing need ever take up that space of sunset in a day. It is precious.

Sunsets will be there for us whether we care and observe or not. Sunsets answer to no one. Sunsets share with all. Sunsets define the evening sky. They will seem friendly and kind on one continent and bursting with anger on another. What is the mile span of the sunset? Can it be measured? They tempt us and beckon.

Sunsets do not mean the same to everyone. To some it means a darkness begins.

Sunsets were a blessing to me, but I do know it is not that to all. May those who fear be blessed with protection. May the glory and the color and the beauty be understood and not blamed for what they do not do.

Job 38:1-6 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone.

Oh my, how I have loved this passage from the first time I read it. What power, what wisdom and understanding of what was needed at this time. I didn’t understand why God was being so forceful here, and still do not come close to being able to dissect it or explain or teach from this, but shine the light on it I will.

How often after learning another layer of information do we regurgitate it and expound upon it to those who will listen. Thinking we are instructing, yet when we stop and examine we see that we are still missing more layers of information. This life is a constant building, changing, evolving, moving piece of energy to an ever-growing puzzle.

“Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?” I don’t think we always set out to “obscure” his plans, but we do with our “words without knowledge.” I have often heard,

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

“The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.”

How can we begin to grasp the depth of wisdom from our creator? We can not. And yet, we keep trying to relate, to connect, to explore, to grasp our ties to deity and spirit. Where is God in all of this? He says to us,

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone.”

I smile when I read this. I want so much of the time to tell youngsters to mind their own business when they question my thinking or my planning or my understanding of others and say where were you when…? And, yet, he shows great compassion to even have the conversation with Job. We were given a great gift in this passage where light shines on our “words without knowledge.”

I for one am so grateful to read these words. We are cared for and given every grace. We are sitting in the presence of the “Almighty.” We walk with, and talk with, and commune all day with our creator whether we know it or not. I am humbled by these words where “the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.”